Warning: Win 8 driver compatibility

H

HavocXphere

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Just a heads up to all of you. That plan of using Win 7 drivers for Win 8 doesn't seem to work all that well.

Got a netgear wifi dongle that BSoDs my Win8 ReleasePreview every couple of hours. Returned it & got a Trendnet dongle....that instantly BSoDs it.

Latest drivers etc. Tried various things - no joy.

Maybe MS will still fix it but in the mean time tread cautiously.
 
I was afraid of this. I see absolutely no reason to move to Win 8.
 
Either your hardware is the issue or the drivers are BSODing the OS because they're unsigned. Have you tried disabling driver signing yet? So far, all my wireless devices and thumb drives have been working perfectly.
 
bekdik said:
You'll need to get drivers from Netgear not MS. They may well not release them until 27th October.
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I grabbed the latest netgear drivers available. Until Netgear releases Win 8 drivers, people will be relying on Win 7 drivers.

NAG - Wesley said:
Either your hardware is the issue
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Hardware has been working just fine on Win 7 for years. Never had any BSoD issues up until this combination of Win 8 + wifi dongles.

I googled around a bit & both dongle models had people posting about Win 8 BSoDs on MSDN too, so I doubt its faulty hardware on my side.

NAG - Wesley said:
or the drivers are BSODing the OS because they're unsigned.
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Pretty sure netgear drivers are signed. If the drivers weren't signed the OS wouldn't load them in the first place anyway. The trendnet BSoD'd the second I plugged it in, so the only drivers involved (if any) were MS drivers. After that I installed trendnet drivers in the hope that it would override whatever Win 8 was loading once I plug in the device. Still BSoDs.

NAG - Wesley said:
So far, all my wireless devices and thumb drives have been working perfectly.
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Yeah all my other devices are fine too, including other dongle types (3G) and a billion other USB devices.

I returned both dongles & ran an ethernet cable to the PC, so its not a question of solving my problem...its just a warning.
 
Wyzak said:
I was afraid of this. I see absolutely no reason to move to Win 8.
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I was not. Been driver issues with about every windows release, besides the preview isn't the RTM build afaik.
 
My asus mobo doesnt have drivers.. Its not even that old, its a 890gx. The 990models already have windows 8 drivers. Doesnt look like ill get windows 8 anytime soon.
 
hugo69er said:
My asus mobo doesnt have drivers.. Its not even that old, its a 890gx. The 990models already have windows 8 drivers. Doesnt look like ill get windows 8 anytime soon.
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I run a 785G motherboard and I haven't had any driver issues, even with sound and the chipset. Windows 8's driver support is perfectly fine.
 
NAG - Wesley said:
I run a 785G motherboard and I haven't had any driver issues, even with sound and the chipset. Windows 8's driver support is perfectly fine.
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While I'm glad for you that your gear is working fine, this does no preclude the possibility that there might be devices where driver support is *not* perfectly fine.

Pr⊕phet said:
I was not. Been driver issues with about every windows release, besides the preview isn't the RTM build afaik.
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Yeah its definitely not RTM. What I was getting at is they changed something in the driver support between Win 7 -> Win 8 Release Prev. I was hoping that driver support would be 1:1 compatible, since that is what is being claimed on a bunch of websites.

It'll undoubtedly get fixed. Either in RTM or when the manufacturers release Win 8 drivers. In the mean time:
HavocXphere said:
tread cautiously.
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Upgrading to the latest version of Windows when it is released is exactly the same as Beta testing a new game. Don't cry, endure. ;)
 
FlatspinZA said:
Upgrading to the latest version of Windows when it is released is exactly the same as Beta testing a new game. Don't cry, endure. ;)
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I hear you. There is a specific reason for me running Win 8 though. I've got a Win 7 disk in a desk drawer...but its a DSP version & I'm due for an upgrade so no point in installing that & linking it to my ancient PC.
 
Argh... win8 just BSOD when installing tablet drivers... now stuck in crash loop and I am not fast enough at boot to hit recovery option keys.

Windows 7 image restoring as I type.

img-20120922-230611.jpg


Meh
 
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But isn't Win 8 build on the exact same kernel as Win 7?

This has been preached as a reason why people should not fear migrating to Win 8 and especially why gamers should not delay the migration...
 
MyWorld said:
But isn't Win 8 build on the exact same kernel as Win 7?

This has been preached as a reason why people should not fear migrating to Win 8 and especially why gamers should not delay the migration...
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Different kernel that's also shared with Windows Phone 8. The change was necessitated by Microsoft's move to put in more effort behind their mobile software division, as well as to allow cross-platform features that couldn't be done with two separate kernels.
 
NAG - Wesley:
What you wrote shows only benefits for MS, nothing for users. I think impatient users are going to pay again for this transition. This is from history of MS Windows:
- Windows for Workgroups - the first usable version of Windows
- Win 95 big pain due to transition to 32 bit, Win98 SE first workable
- Win NT - big plans for multitasking kernel and object oriented GUI (abandoned before launch), Win 2000 barely workable, Win XP the best due to compromise between kernel security and practicability
- Vista I think you remember it, Win 7 workable

Learn from history, wait and see...
 
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